Power Up
Security turns to continuous power for support
- By Michael Kirchner
- Nov 01, 2010
Located in historic Williamsburg,
Va., the College of William and
Mary is the second-oldest college
in the nation. In 2008, the historic
institution completed construction of a
165,000-square-foot Integrated Science
Center, which was designed to bring
the college’s science programs under
one roof.
Many of the disciplines have unique
needs. For example, the chemistry department
requires a lot of air handling,
with ventilation hoods placed strategically
in teaching and research labs on
the ISC’s two chemistry floors. Biology
students need to store samples in
special cooling units, usually called
“minus-80” freezers, as they keep their
contents at -80 degrees Celsius. If the
room temperature rises above 83 degrees
Fahrenheit, the compressors on
minus-80 freezers start to overload,
then fail, causing faculty and students
to lose years of work overnight.
Due to these requirements, it is
imperative that the building have a
strong backup power system. The
space designated for the generators is
limited as well.
Space and Time are Key
When William and Mary began its
search for a standby system, the college
had originally specified a 1,250-kilowatt
system with a 10,000-gallon main
storage diesel tank. At the same time,
new EPA regulations on standby generators
made it more difficult to deliver
in a timely fashion. Because of this, the
college would have needed to wait more
than one year, causing them to re-bid
the project.
“When we re-sent the bid, Generac
came back to us with 2x600 kW with
a belly tank that held 6,000 gallons of
fuel, which Bay Diesel informed us was
enough fuel to last for four days without
having to re-fuel, which is a necessity
for us,” said Randy Strickland, project
manager of William and Mary. “Not
only does the 2x600 kW sit on a smaller
lot than the 1,250 kW would have, but
the tank also is a lot smaller and is under
the system, saving us much-needed
loading dock space.”
Due to the nature of the facility,
time was of the essence. A system needed
to be in place by the time construction
of the new building was complete.
The modular power system allowed
for a much quicker 14-week lead time,
compared with 40-plus weeks from
other suppliers.
“We didn’t have to wait more than
a year for a system to be built,” Strickland
said. “The re-bid had already cost
us a lot of time, so when Bay Diesel
came to us with the Generac genset solution,
we were ready to move forward.
Their bid was accepted in July, and by
February we were in business and the
system was installed.”
The Need for Reliable Power
The ISC currently houses the Department
of Chemistry and portions of the
Department of Biology. It is the first
building on the Williamsburg campus
devoted primarily to scientific activity,
which is why the college must provide
standby power should an outage occur.
“We can’t afford to have a backup
system that isn’t 100-percent reliable,”
Strickland said. “The building’s contents
are irreplaceable. Should we experience
an outage without full protection,
the departments could lose
thousands of dollars in research within
moments.”
Generac’s MPS provides the college
with a solution that combines the output
of multiple generators. The 2x600
-kW system ensures that each genset
backs up the other, so critical loads
receive redundant protection, all while
providing the benefits of paralleled
power generation in an easy-to-use,
single-source system.
The system also features onboard
paralleling capabilities, making it easy
to achieve “need plus-one” or greater
coverage by simply adding modular
generators of the appropriate size. It
is the notion of scalability that allows
for killiwatt outputs to be tailored to
the college’s needs. Generac’s modular
approach combines the output of multiple
generators with digital paralleling
controls and integrated switching on
board each generator. Generac’s integrated
paralleling eliminates the need
to use complex third-party switchgear
to parallel generators.
In addition, the simple sub-base fuel
tank approach pulls the fuel directly
from the tank, eliminating the possibility
of erroneous fuel distribution.
Providing Value
Not only did William and Mary benefit
from the reduced installation time,
but by installing two 600-kW gensets,
rather than one 1,250 kW, the college
saved almost 20 percent of the cost of
the system originally specified.
“With Generac’s MPS, the mechanical
installation requirements are significantly
reduced,” said Rob Robins,
senior vice president of sale at Bay Diesel.
“There was no need for fuel piping
since the tank was installed underneath
the system. The reduced installation
needs also attributed to a reduction
in the overall cost, making the MPS a
logical choice for the school.”
MPS Hard at Work
While many of the outages have been
planned, the college experienced two
unplanned outages since installing the
MPS from Generac.
“This system has worked like a
champ,” Strickland said. “There was
a campus-wide outage one night that
lasted about four hours, and no one
even knew that it had occurred.
“Generac’s generators started right
up and it was business as usual. The
other outage was the result of a lost
phase from our local power supplier.”
Keeping Cool
On the heels of the successful installation
at the science center, William and
Mary chose Generac to install another
2x600-kW MPS in the SEWM Central
Plant to provide cooling and heating to
the science center.
“Because of the environmental
needs of the science center, protecting
the HVAC equipment is just as critical
as protecting the science center itself,”
Strickland said.
This article originally appeared in the issue of .